First reactions | Douglas Diamond, prize in economic sciences 2022 | Telephone interview

“There are very few people in the world I’d rather be sitting next to.” - In this interview recorded just after the public announcement, Douglas Diamond, the first of the three laureates to hear the news, speaks about his happiness at receiving the economic sciences prize together with Philip Dybvig and Ben Bernanke. He tells Adam Smith how he and Dybvig laid the groundwork for their intense working relationship, which lead to the influential Diamond-Dybvig model, while waiting outside their supervisor’s office at Yale, plentifully supplied with cookies. Fast forward to the financial crisis 15 years ago and, Diamond says, “The world was incredibly lucky to have Ben Bernanke sitting in the Federal Reserve”.